Center for Thoracic Oncology

Diseases & Conditions

Pleural Diseases - Treatments

How are Pleural Diseases Treated?

After a careful evaluation of your condition, we will recommend the treatment that is appropriate to your particular circumstances. Depending on the pleural condition and its cause, treatment may include:

Using chemotherapeutic drugs to kill cancer cells may be used before or after surgery, alone, or in combination with other treatments such as radiation treatment. These medications are usually given intravenously but may occasionally be given in pill form.

Video-Assisted Thorascopic Surgery (VATS) is a minimally invasive alternative to open chest surgery that involves less pain and recovery time. After giving you a sedative, the physician will make tiny incisions in your chest and then insert a fiber-optic camera called a thorascope as well as surgical instruments. As the physician moves the thorascope around, images that provide important information are projected on a video monitor.

VATS is not appropriate for all patients; you should have a thorough discussion with your provider before making a decision. It is often not recommended in people who have had chest surgery in the past, because remaining scar tissue can make accessing the chest cavity more challenging and thus riskier.

Your surgeon injects a chemical agent into the pleural space (the area between the two layers of tissue that cover your lungs). The chemical irritates the layers, which eliminates the chance for fluid buildup.

The use of high-energy x-rays and other sources of radiation to kill cancer cells.

Thoracentesis

The removal of pleural fluid with a needle or a catheter that your surgeon inserts through your ribs in the back of your chest into your chest wall.

Thoracostomy

During thoracostomy, your physician will inject a local anesthetic into your chest wall where the fluid is located and insert a plastic tube into your chest between two ribs. Your physician will then connect the tube to a suction device, which will help to remove the fluid

BMC physicians may use tumor ablation to destroy or shrink a tumor or to relieve the symptoms of a patient who is not a candidate for surgery. When using the minimally invasive technique of tumor ablation, the physician employs catheters to ablate (destroy) cancerous tissue. Guided by computed tomography (CT), the physician inserts a specially equipped needle (probe) into the tumor that transmits cancer-killing energy into the malignant cells.